CO129-562-6 Revision of salaries 8-1-1937 - 17-11-1937 — Page 23

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general senior grade. The new proposal looks

attractive and probably works well enough in an

Administration such as Malaya with an ample reserve

for selection from officers with sufficient seniority;

but in Hong Kong, with only about thirty Cadet Officers

in all, I can foresee difficulties. If I may cite

my own case as typical, in the ten years when I was

between thirty-three to forty-three years of age I

occupied four posts which under the new proposal would

draw £1600, £1600, £1500 and £1350 respectively, but

in no case in a genuinely acting capacity, i.e. in the

temporary absence of a substantive holder of the post.

Had the system now proposed been then in force either

those positions would have been held by someone senior,

though presumably less suitable, or alternatively

I should have been faced with the prospect of nearly

twenty years at the same desk. With the existing

system of periodical transfers I feel strongly that the

Cadet Service retains its valuable tradition of

versatility and administrative capacity as against

departmental specialization.

7.

I have refrained from suggesting a senior

scale until I am told whether it is now too late to

reconsider the scheme already approved. I understand

that no response has yet been made by the Governments

of Malaya to the general proposal to treat Asia as

though its problems were the equivalent of those of

Africa.

8.

I will I am sure be excused if I seem too

jealous for the service in which I was myself brought

up, but it is a service with fine traditions of

scholarship and integrity, two qualities in high